Our Lady’s CatholicPrimary SchoolWe aspire that through the love of Jesus everyone should‘have life and have it to the full.’

How will the school support my child?

Our Lady’s CatholicPrimary SchoolWe aspire that through the love of Jesus everyone should‘have life and have it to the full.’

How will the school support my child?

In class

Our Lady’s is a mainstream primary school. For the majority of time your child will be taught in class. We believe that the key to success for any child, including those identified with SEN, is about excellent targeted teaching and learning in class, this is also known as ‘Quality First Teaching’. Essentially this is about the teachers knowing where your child is at, where they need to go next and the best way to get there. Work will be differentiated to meet the children’s needs and consideration will be given to the best way for them to learn. Assessment of children’s progress is key and this happens on a daily basis by the class teacher. There will be times when the children are expected to work independently. There will be times when they work as part of a smaller group within the class, supported by the teacher or teaching assistant. There may be times when they work in a smaller group in a different teaching space.

In discussion with the SENCo, or other support staff, individualised programmes may be used in class to support learning with a few specific children. Children may be given Special equipment or extra resources to support them with the learning/working independently.

In our curriculum, and depending upon the need of the child, we make adaptions so that children can access learning. These include:

providing enlarged print for texts;

breaking curriculum content down into small parts;

providing visual cues and timetables so children are able to be independent in their learning; and

providing children with resources that allow independent access to curriculum content such as acetate overlays for children who have been diagnosed with dyslexia.

We do group the children by ability in year R and Year 1 for phonics teaching (Read Write Inc). In year 6 we have ‘booster’ groups to ensure all the children are prepared and confident for the end of year tests.

Group work

Some children will benefit from targeted support in addition to their learning in class. They may work as part of a small group on a specific intervention for a period of time. These sessions are run by teaching assistants or teachers who have been trained on that intervention. These sessions take place in the afternoon.

Small group interventions we currently run in school include

Read Write Inc

Reading Support

Project X code

POPAT

Talk Boost

Colourful Semantics

Language for thinking

Word Aware

Pie Corbett 'Sentence Writers'

First Class at Number

Dynamo Maths

Teacher-led Maths Intervention groups

Social Skills Groups

'Cool Kids' motor skills

Speed-up Handwriting

Individual work

For a small number of children we will identify that a period of more intensive 1-1 support is the most appropriate way in which to meet their specific needs. These sessions are usually delivered by Teaching Assistants and will happen once a week, 2/3 times a week or even daily. The amount of time will depend on the child and their level of need. This of course has implications for other aspects of the curriculum.

Outside agencies

A small number of children will access support provided by professionals other than school staff. This is outlined in more detail in a following section.